THE MEANING OF MEANING PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor C. K Ogden, 1889-1957, was educated 't Magdalene College, Cambridge In 1909 he began work on a study of International Commuication and the influence of language on thought. He visited schools and universities throughtout Europe, in India, and in the United States to study language-teaching methods. Dr. Ogden then organized the Orthological Institute. He was inventor of the Basic English system, an 850-word vocabulary designed to be an international language In addition to books written in collaboration with J A Richards, Dr. Ogden is the author of The Meaning of Psychology (1926), System of Basic English (1934), General Basic English Dictionary (1942), and other books. I. A. Richards was born in 1893 in Sandbach, Cheshire, Eng- land, and was educated at Clifton College In Bristol and at Magdalene College, Cambridge In 1922 he became lecturer in English and Moral Sciences at Cambridge, and four years later was made a Fellow of Magdalene College During this period he collaborated with C K Ogden on Foundations of Aesthetics (1921) and The Meaning of Meaning (1923) His later works include Principles of Literary Criticism (1925), Practical Criticism (1929, Harvest Book 16, 1956), Coleridge on Imagination (1935), The Philosophy of Rhetâric (1936), How to Read a Page (1942), Speculative Instruments (1955) In recent years he has published two volumes of verse, Goodbye Earth and Other Poems (1958) and The Screens and Other Poems (1960), and a verse play, Tomorrow Morning, Faustus! (1962) The National Institute of Arts and Letters awarded him the Lomes Award for Poetry in 1962. He is now University Professor at Harvard University. PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor The Meaning of Meaning A STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF LANGUAGE UPON THOUGhT AND 0F THE SCIENCE OF SYMBOLISM by C. K. Ogden ' I. A. Richards WITH SUPPLEMENTARY ESSAYS BY B. Malinowski and F. G. Crookshank Ph.D ,D.Sc. MD,FRCR A Harvest Book Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. NEW YORK PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor ISBN O-15-658446-8 MNOP FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1923 PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor PREFACE To THE FIRST EDITION THE following pages, some of which were written as long ago as 1910, have appeared for the most part in periodical form during 1920-22, and arise out of an attempt to deal directly with difficulties raised by the influence of Language upon Thought. It is claimed th,t in the science of Symbolism,' the study of that influence, a new avenue of approach to traditional problems hitherto regarded as reserved for the philosopher and the metaphysician, has been found. And further that such an investigation of these problems is in accordance with the methods of the special sciences whose contributions have enabled the new study to be i The word Symbolism has certain historical associations through the various dictionary meanings of symbol.' which are worth noting In addition to its constant underlying sense of a sign or token (some- thing 'put together') the term lias already enjoyed two distinct floruus The first, traceable to Cyprian, applies to the Creed regarded as the 'sign' of a C2iristian as distinguished from a heathen, as when Henry VIII talks about "the three Creeds or Symbols" A mythological perversion of the derivation (1450 1550, Myrr ow Ladye III, 312) states that "Thys crede ys called S;nibolum, that ys to say a gatherynge of morselles, for eche of the xii apostles put therto a morsel." Other historical details will be found in Schlesinger's Geschichte des Symbols (1923) Secondly, there is the widespread use of the adjective Symbolist in the nineties to characterize those French poets who were in revolt against all forms of literal and descriptive writing, and who attached symbolic or esoteric meanings to particular objects, words and sounds Sunilarly, art critics loosely refer to painters whose object is 'suggestion' rather than 'representation' or 'construction,' as symbolists In the following pages, however, a standpoint is indicated from which both these vague captions can be allotted their place in the system of signs and symbols, and stress is laid upon those aspects of symbolism whose neglect has given rise to so many false problem, both in asthetics and in philosophy PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor PREFACE differentiated from vaguer speculations with which it might appear to be associated. Amongst grammarians in particular a sense of uneasiness has prevailed. It has been felt that the study of language as hitherto conducted by traditional methods has failed to face fundamental issues in spite of its central position as regards all human intercourse. Efforts to make good the omission have been frequent throughout the present century, but volumes by pains- taking philologists bearing such titles as The Phzlosofthy of Language, Princfres de Linguistique Théorique and Voraussetzungen zur Grundlegung einer Kritik der allge- meinen Grammatik und Sftrachkilosohze have, as a rule, been devoid of fruitful suggestion. They have neither discovered the essential problems nor, with few excep- tions, such as Bréal's Semantics, opened up interesting though subordinate fields of investigation. "Breadth of vision is not conspicuous in modern linguistics," says so well-informed an authority as Jespersen in his latest work; and he attributes this narrow outlook to "the fact that linguists have neglected all problems connected with the valuation of language." Unfortun- ately, Jespersen's own recommendations for a normative approach, the three questions which he urges philolo- gists to consider- What is the criterion by which one word or one form should be preferred to another? Are the changes that we see gradually taking place in languages to be considered as on the whole bene- ficial, or the opposite? Would it be possible to construct an international language?- hardly touch the central problem of meaning, or the relations of thought and language; nor can they be profitably discussed by philologists without a thorough examination of this neglected preliminary. And, as we shall see in our ninth chapter, philosophers and psy- PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor PREFACE vu chologists, who are often supposed to be occupied with such researches, have done regrettably little to help them. There are some who find difficulty in considering any matter unless they can recognize it as belonging to what is called 'a subject' and who recognize a subject as something in which, somewhere at least, Professors give instruction and perhaps Examinations are under- gone. These need only be reminded that at one time there were no subjects and until recently only five. But the discomfort experienced in entering the less familiar fields of inquiry is genuine. In more frequented topics the main roads, whether in the right places or not, are well marked, the mental traveller is fairly well assured of arriving at some well-known spot, whether worth visiting or not, and will usually find himself in respect- able and accredited company. But with a new or border-line subject he is required to be more self- dependent; to decide for himself where the greater interest and importance lies and as to the results to be expected. He is in the position of a prospector. If the venture here recorded should be found to assist any others in the study of symbols, the authors will consider it justified. Needless to say they believe it to be of greater importance than this. In order at least not to fail in the more modest aim of calling attention to a neglected group of problems, they have added as an Appendix a number of selected passages indicative of the main features of similar undertakings by other writers in the past. Of their own contributions towards the foundations of a science of Symbolism the following seem to them to have most value: (i) An account of ¿nlerftretdtion in causal terms by which the treatment of language as a system of signs becomes capable of results, among which may be noticed the beginning of a division between what cannot be intelligibly talked of and what can. PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor vin PREFACE (2) A division of the functions of language into two groups, the symbolc and the emotive. Many notorious controversies in the sciences it is believed can be shown to derive from confusion between these functions, the same words being used at once to make statements and to excite attitudes. No escape from the fictitious differences so produced is possible without an understanding of the language functions. With this understanding it is believed that such controversies as those between Vitali'm and Mechanism, Materialism and Idealism, Religion and Science, etc., would lapse, and further the conditions would be restored under which a general revival of poetry would be possible. () A dissection and ventilation of 'meaning' the centre of obscurantism both in the theory of knowledge and in all discussion. () An examination of what are confusedly known as 'verbal questions.' Nothing is commoner in discussion than to hear some point of difference described as purely or largely 'verbal.' Sometimes the disputants are using the same words for different things, sometimes different words for the same thìngs. So far as either is the case a freely mobilizable technique of definition meets the difficulty. But frequently the disputants are using the same (or different) words for nothing, and here greater modesty due to a livelier realiiation of the language Situation 15 recommendable.